The 5 Best Italian-American Restaurants in NYC

Italian-American food—endearingly referred to by some as “red sauce” Italian—is soul food for millions of Americans. This bastardized cuisine was created by Southern Italians who immigrated in waves to the U.S. in what’s known as the Italian diaspora. But enough with the history lesson—let’s get to what you really want to know: Where do you go for the best linguini with clam sauce, eggplant parmesan, baked clams, braciole, fried calamari, and meatballs?

From a century-old Red Hook Sicilian spot to a new-school Manhattan restaurant revisiting tried-and-true classics, New York City has an abundance of great Italian-American cooking.

Here are our five favorite places to get our red sauce on in NYC.

Ferdinando's Focacceria

Address and phone: 151 Union St, Columbia Street Waterfront District, Brooklyn (718-855-1545)
Website:ferdinandosfocacceria.comGood for: History; authentic Sicilian dishes
Walking into this century-old Sicilian restaurant is like being in a time warp. Vintage photos of Palermo hang on the walls alongside a leg of prosciutto—you can't replicate ambience like this. But whereas so many of Brooklyn's old-school restaurants have lost their focus on food, Ferdinando's authentic Sicilian dishes have remained solid all these years. Regulars come for the panelle, fluffy fried chick pea and flour patties, topped with ricotta and grated cheese. If you're a fan of "variety cuts," order the famous calf-spleen sandwich (known as vastedda), served on a soft sesame roll baked in house (pro tip from the owner: order the vastedda without ricotta and with lemon). Other stand-out dishes include the eggplant caponata, baked clams swimming in garlicky butter, and classic pasta con sarde, featuring spaghetti tossed in a sauce of sautéed fennel, onions, pine nuts, raisins, and sardines jarred in house.—Erin MosbaughOrder this:Panelle, baked clams, caponata, spleen sandwich with lemon, pasta con sarde

Carbone

Neighborhood: Greenwich Village
Address and phone: 181 Thompson St (212-933-0707)
Website:carbonenewyork.com
Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi's new-school red sauce parlor split critics when it opened last year: While some found the '50s-era red-sauce kitsch irresistible, others accused it of being the worst type of theme-park dining. Stoking the fires of the debate is the unavoidable fact that Carbone is crazy expensive ($54 veal parm, what up), not to mention that the over-the-top staging—from the Zac Posen-costumed waiters to the new-school mobster art—leaves little to the imagination. But let's be real: Red sauce is always pricey and a little gaudy. By cranking the caricature up to 11 and improving the old warhorse dishes considerably—baked clams that are bright rather than sodden, rigatoni alla vodka that's actually cooked al dente—Team Torrisi has successfully created one of New York's best places to eat when somebody else is footing the bill. If anyone at your table isn't grinning when the dessert cart rolls around, send them home early with a wet blanket.—Chris SchonbergerOrder this: Baked clams; Caesar alla ZZ; spicy rigatoni vodka; zuppa de pesce; creamed escarole; veal parmesan; the dessert trolley (if only so they'll roll it over for an Instagram photo)

Bamonte's

Address and phone: 32 Withers St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn (718-384-8831)
Good for: Classic Brooklyn red sauce in one of the city's oldest dining rooms
Of the city's ancient Italian-American restaurants—Lombardi's started slinging pizzas in 1905, and Gene's opened in 1919—none is as old or as consistently delicious as Bamonte's in Brooklyn. Preserved in amber since 1900, the dining room has the sort of no-atmosphere atmosphere that predates any of Williamsburg's restaurant-design trends—white table cloths, fusty chandelier, regulars/mobsters who look like they just stepped out of Central casting, and bow tie-clad waiters who have been ferrying plates of veal parmigiana for longer than you've been alive. The whole experience is worth it even before you've ordered, but the most pleasant surprise at Bamonte's is that the kitchen hasn't given up. From beautifully simple clams casino to piles of baked ziti, all your favorite throwback classics are alive and well, and the whole meal is tied together by an excellent house gravy that has just the right balance of sweetness and acidity. Finish with a slice of tiramisu for the quintessential New York meal.
Order this: Clams casino, veal parm, eggplant rollatini, linguine with white-clam sauce, rigatoni a la vodka, tiramisu

Parm

Address and phone: 248 Mulberry St (212-993-7189)
Website:parmnyc.comGood for: Classic Italian sandwiches with new-school swagger
What started as a daytime sandwich counter inside Torrisi Italian Specialties has turned into Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi's most resounding home-run, with an outpost inside Yankee Stadium and three more opening soon (Upper West Side, Williamsburg, and Battery Park City). The turkey hero is one of the city’s top sandwich offerings, thanks to poultry that's unthinkably moist after a low-and-slow ride in a CVap oven. Parm’s bread, brought in from the nearby Parisi Bakery, is chewy with a nice coating of sesame seeds—it’s the perfect vehicle for eggplant, meatball, or chicken parm. Look beyond the sandwiches to a plate of butter-drenched baked littleneck clams and a cube of baked ziti crisped up on the griddle. If you’re still hungry, there’s always the calamari—deep fried with two kinds of peppers—and one of the most Instagrammed ice-cream cakes in America.—Erin MosbaughOrder this: Eggplant parm sandwich, meatball parm sandwich, turkey sandwich, fried calamari, baked littleneck clams, ice-cream cake

Rubirosa

Address and phone: 235 Mulberry St (212-965-0500)
Website:rubirosanyc.comGood for: Pizza and upgraded red-sauce classics with neighborhood-joint appeal
Balancing downtown cool with the charm of a classic red-sauce joint is no small feat, but it's that rare combination that keeps us coming back to Rubirosa. Angelo Bianchi, gatekeeper/highlander of celebrity hipster haunts like the old Beatrice Inn and the current Jane Ballroom, helped kickstart the crackling scene when it opened, but what's made it more than just another nouveau Mulberry Street hot spot is that it's got the DNA of great Italian food in it: Co-owner AJ Pappalardo got his start tossing pies around at Joe & Pat's on Staten Island when he was 12. With chef-owner Al Di Meglio, they brought a fairly simple idea to life: A neighborhood Italian-American restaurant with an overload of charisma, and solid red-sauce food.
The thin-crust pizzas get the most attention, deservedly so—their brittle crust snaps with every bite, and the ruby-red tomato sauce is bright and tangy. But it's worth remembering that this is a fully-formed restaurant with hits deep into the menu: braciole with meat that melts off the cut; excellent homemade pastas; light-as-clouds meatballs; and fried calamari with the fiery fra diavolo sauce on the side. Pair it all with a bottle from the supremely sharp wine list, then close the deal with puffy zeppoles.

Ultimately, Rubirosa is best summed up by the charming appointment of a copy of Dr. Seuss's And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street propped up on the bar counter, in you'll find the words, "And that is a story that no one can beat, and to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street." Let this place be one of your favorite regular surprises in New York City, and you'll never turn back.—Foster Kamer

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